The Facts About Multiple Infant Food Allergy

A multiple infant food allergy is fortunately not too common. There are children who are allergic to something, those who are allergic to one or two things, and then we have the others – those who are allergic to many different things, things that the majority find harmless their bodies decide for some reason to react to. The symptoms that result include rashes, breathing problems, eczema, colic, irritability and even bleeding from the bowel.

Most infant food allergies eventually go away... usually by your child’s second year. But in some few cases they persist even into adulthood.

Note that word ‘few’ – for the majority there is light at the end of the tunnel – and even the others learn to carry a torch to read all the labels.

A Different Life For "Multiple Infant Food Allergy" Kids

It does mean that life is a little different – if your baby goes to a minder for instance they need to be aware of the situation, as do those who hand out biscuits at toddler group or who invite your child to a party.

It doesn’t mean children can’t go to the party – they might just have to take their own food with them.

A young man used to come to my home frequently at one time, bringing with him a lunch box of carefully chosen goodies. No one made a fuss about it and from the age of about 4 his mother was happy to leave him in safe hands – and vegetarian jelly with non-dairy cream was safe.

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Children are weaned slowly so of course they are not known to be allergic to many foods at first. Some experts suggest that children who react dramatically to milk are more likely to develop other problems with allergies later, including diabetes. They also state that believing it is only a reaction to lactose is misguided as the problem is more likely to be one where the reaction is to milk protein – which is why some formulas designed to overcome the problem don’t work.

According to a report published by the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology Committee on Adverse Reactions to Food removing milk from the diet has a positive effect in removing allergic reactions in about one third of children.

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One Frequent Multiple Infant Food Allergy Culprit

Milk produces mucus,  so if your child is an over producer of mucus, perhaps milk is the major cause.

Speaking as an adult who had a milk allergy, I know that as a small child I was only allowed it in very tiny amounts  - I drank a lot of tea and water as a child. It wasn’t until I was about 18 that I could tolerate more than a mouthful of milk and I found cream even worse. I have had mild irritable bowel syndrome all my life and it wasn’t until I went away recently to a place where no milk is used that my problems disappeared – but my case is mild and I’m prepared to put up with a little inconvenience in order to drink tea with milk once or twice a day or enjoy a nibble of cheese.

It is a different matter with a tiny baby who is reacting violently. Milk Sucks has got details of lots of these reports. The general consensus is to remove cow’s milk from the diet entirely if a child reacts.

Your doctor will be able to tell you what foods your child reacts to after testing – but he cannot test for everything – nor can he read the labels on every packet. Bringing up any child is a great responsibility. A multiple infant food allergy occurrence is just one of the many obstacles we need to overcome. But persist – you will eventually succeed